Around 50,000 to 60,000 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have been administered with doses of vaccines against COVID-19 in other countries.
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III reported in the Laging Handa Public Briefing on Thursday that among the recipients of vaccines are frontline workers abroad.
“Not to mention ‘yung mga usual frontliners natin sa England at Germany na talaga namang sila ang inuuna dahil sila ay priority workers in those countries (Not to mention our usual frontliners in England and Germany who are at the top of the list as they are among priority workers in those countries),” Bello stated.
Following their inoculation, some OFWs initially planning to be repatriated have decided not to fly back home to the Philippines.
Around 500,000 Filipinos abroad have been displaced since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of them have sought to be brought back to the country. – Report from Kenneth Paciente
